Below is not an exhaustive list of requirements for a Web CMS, but will hopefully provide you with a starting point and areas to consider. Depending on your own particular set of needs, some may have higher ranking on your list. Other requirements may or may not feature at all.

User requirements

How many different authors will be contributing content?

With the multitude of CMS solutions that now exist on the market, it is imperative that you choose your solution very wisely. The wrong product to manage an inappropriate form of content WILL have significant negative consequences for your organisation. Equally, the purchase of a niche product that only manages ONE type of content, could leave you stranded when you come to extend the types of content you wish to manage.

  www.opencms.org

The Open Source Content Management System / CMS. OpenCms from Alkacon Software, easy to use, professional open source content management / CMS based on Java and XML.

  www.opensourcecms.com

A Web CMS enables online information to be fresh, consistent and a high quality. Reduced customer (internal & external) dissatisfaction created by having incorrect information. Reduction in legal issues created by displaying incorrect information. Increased value perception of the information provided. There is a higher likelihood of a customer re-visiting the site. Some search engines rank pages that change frequently higher in search results.

 

The IT Sector has dreamed of a paperless, electronically managed office for over 30 years - so you might ask yourself - why the sudden big push towards content management ?

The answer is that the push has not actually been that sudden.

For those old enough to remember, organisations in the 1970's were revolutionised when the typing pool was replaced with software tools like MS-Windows and Lotus Notes. The CMS is arguably more of an evolution from those tools to a new standard, than a revolution.

Why are there so many types of Content Management System?

"A Content Management System - CMS is a tool that enables many features even for non technical staff to create, edit, manage and finally publish a variety of content such as text, graphics, video, documents etc, whilst being constrained by a centralised set of rules, process and workflows that ensure coherent, validated electronic content."

There are many ways to manage your Web site content, from the simple Web log (blog) engine system that allows limited content publishing to a full content management system framework to application frameworks, on which you can build your own custom content management system. With the wide array of choices in the open source space, it can be hard to choose the right solution for your needs.